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Fans: We were hassled at Qualcomm over turbans

SAN DIEGO -- Verinder Malhi and his friends drove seven hours from Fresno to see Denver dominate the Chargers last Sunday.

However, a security guard initially wouldn’t let the Broncos fans into Qualcomm Stadium because they were wearing turbans, a garment typically worn by Sikh men.

“Three of my buddies, they had turbans on, and it (was like, you guys got to take the turbans off,” Mahli said.

They were finally allowed inside Qualcomm, but Malhi claims a security supervisor told him that if they ever come back, they cannot wear turbans.

“It’s bad, I mean, this is embarrassing for me, because we are Americans at the end of the day. And we are not supposed to be afraid of fellow Americans.”

That wasn’t the end of it. At some point Sunday afternoon, a fearful fan called San Diego police about Malhi and his friends. According to police, the caller claimed that three men wearing turbans were fiddling with items in their trunk, and had then left the parking lot.

A tailgater took a photo of a bomb-sniffing dog checking Malhi’s vehicle. Police told 10News the dog cleared the car. Malhi said they had simply put a bag in the car after realizing they weren’t allowed to take it in the stadium.

“Everybody kind of confusing us with the turbans, because what you see on TV is mostly the terrorists they wear turbans. But our turbans is different, our faith is different our beliefs are different.”

The city of San Diego is looking in to the matter but said the security supervisor is not a city employee.